The Los Gallardos wildfire (July 2026): what the satellite data shows

On 9 July 2026 a fire broke out next to the N-340A road and in three days devastated some 7,000 hectares across Los Gallardos, Bédar and Lubrín (Almería), forced the evacuation of more than 1,400 people and caused fatalities. It is the worst wildfire on record in Andalusia. This article is not a chronicle: it is an analysis, using public data — the same data every Hogarfax report cross-checks — of what the satellites saw, when they saw it, and what it means for anyone buying a home in areas like this. Our respect and solidarity go to the victims and their families.

What happened, in data

According to official information and media coverage, the fire started on 9 July in mid-afternoon with temperatures around 40 °C, very low humidity and south-westerly gusts of up to 50 km/h. The dominant vegetation was dry scrubland — low shrub with no tree cover. With that wind, a scrub fire is not a "minor" fire: it is a fast fire, and speed is what kills. The regional government declared it stabilised on 12 July, with some 7,000 hectares affected across three municipalities.

What the satellites mapped

While the fire advanced, two public systems were measuring it from space. NASA's VIIRS and MODIS satellites (the NASA FIRMS programme) recorded hundreds of thermal hotspots over the area between 9 and 11 July, updated several times a day. And the EU's Copernicus programme (EFFIS) mapped the burnt-area perimeter on 10 July, with its size and fire date. In other words: within 24-48 hours of ignition, anyone could know — with free, public data — exactly which land had burned and where thermal activity continued.

A concrete example of what that enables: a plot in the urban core of Los Gallardos analysed today with Hogarfax shows the burnt perimeter about 260 metres away, with its date and hectares, the thermal hotspots of the last few days with their exact distance, and the surrounding forest mass with its fuel model. A month ago, that same plot would have shown scrubland 100 metres away and a low municipal fire frequency. The terrain did not change: what we know about it did.

We turned that reading into an anonymised real case study of a Los Gallardos property: the same active-fire and recent-perimeter context, plus a seismicity warning that means the building itself also needs checking.

Why the fire history did not anticipate it

The official fire statistics (EGIF) recorded 2 fires and 3 minor fires in a decade for Los Gallardos. Almería is, historically, the Spanish province with the fewest forest fires: scarce, discontinuous fuel. But the fire climate has changed — longer heatwaves, drier vegetation, agricultural abandonment creating fuel continuity — and one wind episode turned a historically low-risk area into the worst fire in Andalusia's history. The technical lesson is uncomfortable but clear: history describes the past; the present requires near-real-time data.

What home buyers can learn

• The wildland-urban interface matters more than the municipality: evacuations concentrated in scattered homes and developments surrounded by scrub, not in the urban core.
• "Harmless" scrubland is not harmless with wind: a low-shrub fire advances so fast that the evacuation margin is measured in minutes.
• A low historical frequency is not a free pass: also ask about emergency access, clearing strips and self-protection plans.
• If the area already burned, the risk changes shape: bare soil, erosion and runoff with the first heavy rains, and a landscape that will take years to recover.
• Power lines are an ignition source, not just an easement: the cause under investigation in this case is the possible fall of a cable from an abandoned line.

How to check any plot

The data that made it possible to track this fire is public, and Hogarfax cross-checks it automatically against any plot in Spain: active-fire hotspots (NASA FIRMS, refreshed several times a day), burnt-area perimeters of the last 5 years (Copernicus EFFIS), distance to forest mass and its fuel (MFE) and the municipal history (EGIF). You can see the national picture on the active fires map and the risk context on the wildfire risk map.